The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1887-10-30
THE STORY OF TWO MEN.
A Thrifty Farmer and Thriftless One Illus
trate the Imperative Laws for Success.

Thrifty Farmer and Thriftless One Illus
trate the Imperative Laws for Success.
Writer assn, for the journal by Gail Hamton-copy-
HAMILTON. Mass. Oct. 2S.-We seem to have
entered upon an era of organization. The dis
contented have sovereign remedy-to de-
stroy what is now organized and to organize
anew. Organization is a powerful force, but
unless it is controlled by intelligence it il q rope
of sand Organization creates no new faculties in
man or beast or any form OF mind or matter. Il
can only utilize what already exists ORGANIZATION
cannot overthrow natural law. tits useful only
as it harmonizes with and avais itself Of natural
law. A club, q party, q nation, that should
found itself on the principle thar men hate life.
that mind has no expansive power, that mothers
love is a selfish and disastrous trait and to be
obliterated from human society. would gain
advantage from organization. Falsehood is in
herentlv and essentially . disinteRrator. It 10
only the truth in false systems that holds them
together.
have seen two men starting ont in life side
by size. one with only his own hands to help
him. the other with house, and lands. and money
Inherited from his father-men Of the same sta
ton in life and of the same family connection
Both married good girls, and each reared q fam
ily-the poor man q larger family than the
rich man. To-day their condition life
is exactly reversed. The poor man who
had nothing but his health and his hands,
who paid rent and earned every cent he ever
held, to-day owns his house. his small farm,
his COW. has snug little sum at interest, is
still earning money. takes holiday when he
chooses, is a capitalist. intelligent. contented,
l.,~ f-;~ ~:xL ~ L.
world. Tho other man has lost house. farm.
money, is living in kinsman's house, half
charity, half only Oh convenience. is
chiefly supported by the urceasing
toll of his devoted wife; without any especial
vice is perfectly respectable. but has voice in
the neigh 0orhood movements is never consulted
about church, parish, school, or lecture, and
has a constant sense Of being wronged If he
were in anarchc neigh borhood he would
take as naturally to anarchy as pine shaving
to Brownings blue squirt of a lighted match.
1t seems to me that the difference here was in
the mon themselves. not in government. or socie-
ty, or laws tyranny. The man who now ewps
real estate is not ''robber baron" It was not
his oppressive capital that lost his neighbor q
farm. The wage system" had not made a
slave" Of him; it had made him a capitalist It
was not workers in the tenements, idlers in
the other The worker in the tenement
by constant industry and frrgality bad become
owner of the brown-stone front-a very modest
brown-stone front-good pine clapboards painted
brown, but inclosiug just much family COM
fort and happiness as the real brownstone. How
is it possible to cherish any erudge against
capital so hardly and honestly earned, so bcnef.
lcently enjoyed? Why must every man have a
breech-loader and know how to use it when this
man had made pleasant place for himself in
life with his hoo and his awl? What can bombs
and breech- leaders do for hima
What. indeed. can they do for tho other man
- +:
wrest it from him. On the contrary his step
brother has been his unfailine friend. But in the
hot hay-days he and his men would leave work
at 5 o'clock, when the neighboring farmers kept
at it till the moon rose. He had an ample herd
of and abundant milk, so that a
considerable quantity OF skim milk was
kept pigs enough to drink the skim milk be the
same moro or less. Half loaves of bread a little
stale; chunks of cake, white specked with mold;
. slice or two Of beefsteak just turned" would
be lightly fed ont to the hens. and the waste
beef bone. but half stripped, thrown to the
dogs. The stsp-brother kept no dogs and
and beat the bones themselves to feed
to the hens; stale bread was made into toast
and cake into buildings. and beef into hash, be-
fore ever a suspicion had tainte it; and through
tho summer. hay-days aud all, every worked
early mornings and late evenings. and rested,
when rest they could at midday, and in hay
time hardly that, but could well stand it, be-
cause daytime is short.
This is pretty much all know about farming,
and do not know much more about money
making; but from what little do know, from
what little have seen, 1t seems to me that
strikers are not striking wide enough, are not
striking hard enough. not striking high
enough. They only striking against the
the capitalists the coal merchants, the steam
boat men, the real estate holders. whereas they
ought to strike against tho power outside all
these, and under which these men live and to
which they are just subject arc the strikers.
The laws Of the universe must be changed.
Brains must be made inferior to muscle. more
common. less useful and less in demand. Thrift
must be dethroned, and drinking and smoking
put a par with savings-banks Is q means Of
made more profitable than working
who will build up industries without profit just
as enthusiastically as industries which bring
wealth; of mon who win take great risks. yet
demand no more for il than men who take no
risk but receive their daily stipend whether it
come from profit or loss: of employers, in short,
who are willing to let their employees manage the
business Can man by any organization do thisf
No; because he is born into an organization
whose laws are exactly opposite. Rich mon and
poor men arc equally and helplessy parts of q
great plan formed without their cooperation,
insensible TO harapgue. dynamite whose action
they have no more power to stay than the grain OF
millionaire in Wall street has no more power to
block the wheels Of the world than the woman
sewing under Brooklyn bridge; no more power
to reverse it's action to change the laws of its
mocha mics, or happily to prevent the law OF love
from cutting athwart the law of mechanics.
There is ono thing for the millionaire and the
proletaire. and that is to understand that in tho
working world the financial world. any more
than in the religious world, men do not gather
grapes from thorns or figs from thistleA
Grape and Fig Club may organize and improve
our vineyards to the last point OF
flavor and fertility, but a Thorn
and Thistle Society would only vex an earth
which is already too thickly overrun with thorns
and thistles. The advantage of the millionaire
over the day laborer lies in his power to bring
more people into harmony with the iuviolable
laws on which this planet is swung in the sky,
On which man is planted on this planet. He
IAN investigate them more closely, be can con-
form himself to them more truly: he can diffuse